22 things we learned about the Dolphins from Day 1 at mini-camp

22 things we learned about the Dolphins after the first day of mini-camp, which entailed a morning and afternoon practice:

1. New defensive coordinator Mike Nolan is trying to create an “offensive defense,” or a unit that plays up-tempo and dictates the pace of the game to the offense, instead of the other way around. “You can see there’s an attitude here and a philosophy from a defensive standpoint of creating turnovers, of scoring with the football, the pass rush, all those things from a philosophy standpoint I can see are different,” head coach Tony Sparano said. “Those guys are doing a nice job of buying into it.”

2. The starters on the interior line won’t be decided for awhile. Jake Grove played first team center in the morning, while Joe Berger played with the starters in the afternoon, and they will continue to rotate practice sessions throughout the mini-camp and OTAs. Rookie John Jerry played left guard with the First Team in the morning, while newcomer Cory Procter manned left guard in the afternoon. Richie Incognito played right guard in the morning, and gave way to Donald Thomas in the afternoon. Still, the front-runners to start the season are: Thomas at left guard, Grove at center, Incognito at right guard.

3. Brandon Marshall hasn’t done much other than stand on the sidelines and rest his surgically repaired right hip, but his teammates can already tell that he is the real deal. “Something I’ve noticed out here on the field is he really understands football,” receiver Greg Camarillo said. “He really understands the technique and the intricacies of being a receiver, which combined with his athleticism is what makes him a dominant receiver.”

Ferguson (left), Marshall and Crowder will spend plenty of time together on the bikes as they rehab injuries / AP

5. Garner recently had an unspecified surgery and won’t return until training camp at the end of July.

6.Phillip Merling practiced all day with the First Team, despite his arrest, while Jared Odrick practiced with the Second Team.

7. We’ll have more about second-year CB Sean Smith in the morning, but he promised that he will finally get an interception in 2010 after going 0-fer last year as a rookie. “I guarantee that number will change,” Smith said. “No way I will go another season without an interception. That’s just impossible.”

8. It’s no coincidence that the Dolphins are holding their mini-camp on Memorial Day Weekend. This was the same weekend a year ago in which defensive tackle Randy Starks was arrested on South Beach for aggravated battery on a police officer. The Dolphins’ mini-camp last year was the week before Memorial Day. “If you want to party, you can go party, but this weekend is about football,” Camarillo said. “We can have our day off on Monday, but we’re not celebrating the holiday now, we’re celebrating football.”

9. Of course, Sparano said there was a strategic reason for having the mini-camp this weekend, too. “Because of the amount of OTAs we’re using – we’re only using 10 of our 14 – I did not want the mini-camp at the end to be just another practice. What I wanted it to be is part of the install. We’re just getting into the middle of the install right now, and having the mini-camp up here at this end, there’s a bit more meaning to these practices than just putting them at the end when everything was already installed and it just becomes a little bit repetitive. This is a way to keep their interest and really get good work in our install.”

12. Second-year safety Chris Clemons continued to play with the First Team, while Evan Oglesby and Jason Allen were the Second Team cornerbacks. Clemons made a nice interception in the morning session on an overthrow by Chad Henne.

The Dolphins have had their eye on ILB Tim Dobbins, acquired on draft day, for awhile / AP

13. LB Tim Dobbins was hardly a throw-in in the draft-day trade with San Diego, which netted the Dolphins the 28th and 40th picks. “We had our eye on him for some time,” Sparano said. “This guy was an active player out there in his number of plays. Played something like 347-350 snaps during the course of the season. Played a few different positions, in a defense similar to our defense right now. Had some position flexibility and was darn good on special teams.”

14. Dobbins, who played with the First Team on Friday morning, is also competing with Crowder to be a starting LB, but that could just be a motivational ploy from the coaching staff.

15. Second-round pick Koa Misi and Charlie Anderson worked with the First Team at outside linebacker. Misi had worked with the Second Team at the last OTA while Quentin Moses was the starter. Cameron Wake continues to work with the Second Team.

16. The offensive package named after a mammal, which involves direct snaps to players other than the quarterback, isn’t going anywhere. And that’s all I’ll say about that.

17. Play of the Day: Actually, two of them, both by second-year receiver Taurus Johnson from USF. First, Johnson made a tremendous cut on Oglesby and easily caught a 20-yard post route, which he turned into a 70-yard touchdown. On the second, Johnson broke Lousaka Polite’s ankles on a punt return, drawing a loud chorus of “ooohh’s” from his teammates.

18. Derp of the Day: On 4th-and-3 in the 2-minue drill, Pat White threw a complete duck – like, end-over-end, this-pass-can’t-wobble-any-worse kind of duck – that went through John Nalbone’s hands and right to Jonathan Amaya for the interception.

19. Rookie fourth-rounder A.J. Edds worked alongside Karlos Dansby with the First Team at inside linebacker in the afternoon. Edds and Dobbins figure to benefit the most from yesterday’s cutting of Reggie Torbor.

20. Speaking of Torbor, Sparano had some nice words for the departed player, but hinted that his lack of versatility, especially on special teams, hurt him. “It wasn’t anything Reggie didn’t do. Reggie’s a super guy, and was really a good player for me here,” Sparano said. “I just like the guy, I really do. But we have some young players here who are going to have really good futures, and we have some players like Dobbins here that are able to do some different things that way.”

21. Henne, White and Tyler Thigpen took all the reps Friday. Chad Pennington didn’t throw a pass in any team drills.

22. Sparano may be the only one who doesn’t confuse Davone Bess with Ryan Grice-Mullen, the two diminutive, dreadlocked receivers from Hawaii. “Bess has got muscles from all this offseason work right now, and Grice has still got to grow a few more muscles,” Sparano said.